The Abnormalities in our Psychology: Schizophrenia

Psychology is considered a field of great importance in the world today as compared to some years back. With the growing knowledge about many challenges that are mentally related, the field of psychology known as abnormal psychology is gaining a lot of demand because people want to understand the exact issues they are facing in life and how to go about them. Psychology is the study of human thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Abnormal psychology is the study of abnormal thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Abnormal psychology is a division of psychology that studies people who are "abnormal" or "atypical" compared to the members of a given society.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts. Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, it can be very disabling. Approximately 7 or 8 individuals out of 1,000 will have schizophrenia in their lifetime. Schizophrenia affects about 24 million people worldwide. It is a severe mental illness that causes international concern. It is highly disabling, characterized by early onset, psychosis, cognitive dysfunction and impaired functioning. Different scholars have carried out studies on the possible causes of abnormality in psychology, there are two common theories that many scholars seem to be in agreement with, these are somatogenic and psychogenic theories. The somatogenic theory puts it clear that the biological disorders or illness are the things that cause abnormality while the psychogenic theory claims that psychological problems are responsible for the cause of abnormalities.

Somatogenic theory: there's something wrong with her brain. Perhaps she has damage to the left side of her brain, which causes language disorders. Or, maybe she has damage to the bottom part of the front of the brain, which makes people do things that are socially inappropriate. Either way, somatogenic theory explains abnormality in terms of physical causes. As such, a somatogenic approach to abnormality often focuses on using drugs, surgery or other physical therapies to treat psychological disorders while psychogenic theory: the woman in the cafe has an underdeveloped superego, which means that she can't stop her urges like wanting to call out in a public place. Treatment for abnormality based on psychogenic theory includes talk therapy and hypnosis.

EXAMPLES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

There are several disorders around the world, and we still have more coming up. Examples of them are; Schizophrenia, paranoid personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, anti-social personality disorder and many more. This study is going to concentrate on schizophrenia as seen: Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects about one percent of the population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. This is a startling disorder characterized by a broad spectrum of cognitive and emotional dysfunctions including delusions and hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior and inappropriate emotions. Schizophrenia is a strange and often devastating disorder that starts in early life and can lead to lifelong disability. It is one of the major public health challenges.

TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Undifferentiated type of schizophrenia- People with this type of schizophrenia meet the usual criteria for schizophrenia like delusions, hallucinations, disordered thoughts and bizarre behaviors. Catatonic Type; The main feature of this type of schizophrenia is pronounced motor signs, either of an excited or a stuporous type. Ordinarily patients in a catatonic stupor stubbornly resist any effort to change their position and may become mute, resist all attempts at feeding and refuse to comply with even the slightest request. A patient will sit in one position (like fetal) for hours without any movement. They pay no attention to bowel or bladder control and may drool. Their facial expression is vacant. Threats and painful stimuli have no effect, and they may have to be dressed and washed by nursing personnel.

Disorganized type of schizophrenia- compared with other types of schizophrenia, disorganized type usually occurs at an earlier age and represents a more severe disintegration of the personality. Fortunately, like catatonic schizophrenia, it is relatively uncommon. This is what used to be called “hebephrenic schizophrenia”. An affected person has a history of oddness and preoccupation with obscure religious and philosophical issues. While schoolmates are enjoying normal play and social activities, this person becomes gradually more seclusive and more preoccupied with fantasies. As the disorder progresses, the person becomes emotionally indifferent and infantile. A silly smile and inappropriate, shallow laughter after little or no provocation are common symptoms. These people have regressed to a point where they behave like small children. They are silly and will giggle when serious reflections would be expected. Hallucinations, particularly auditory ones, are common. The voices heard by these people may accuse them of immoral practices. Delusions are usually of a sexual, religious or persemtory nature.

Paranoid Type: Frequently, paranoid schizophrenics show histories of suspiciousness and of severe difficulties in interpersonal relationships. These are people with delusions of persecution. An individual may become highly suspicious of relatives or associates and may complain of being watched, followed, poisoned, and talked about, etc. We also have those who have delusions of grandeur. People with such delusions may for example, claim to be world’s greatest economist or philosopher or some prominent person of the past such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahattma Gandhi or even Jesus. Paranoid schizophrenic thoughts are centered on the themes of persecution, grandeur or both. It should be pointed out that there is a higher level of adaptive coping and of cognitive integrative skills in a paranoid type schizophrenia than in other types of schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenics are more coherent, alert and responsive compared to other schizophrenics.

SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

The illness may begin suddenly or gradually, and its symptoms either improve or become chronic to different degrees. Many patients have better periods with only minor symptoms and worse periods when the symptoms are re-aggraded. Schizophrenia differs from mental illness of definite organic origin in that it does not involve dementia or disorders of memory, orientation, or intelligence comparable to the latter.

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder that cannot be easily identified by one aspect of its symptoms. Schizophrenia is a number of behaviors or symptoms that aren’t necessarily shared by all people who are given this diagnosis.

This condition has a varied nature, what causes it in one person may differs from what causes it in another person. In the same way the symptoms seen in one person are seen to be different from the symptoms seen in another person. But we also find that there are some things that are exclusively related to this disorder that can be looked at to tell whether one is schizophrenic. Despite these complexities, researchers have identified clusters of symptoms that make up the disorder of schizophrenia, we describe these dramatic symptoms as seeing or hearing things that others do not (hallucination) or having beliefs that are unrealistic, bizarre and not shared by others in the same culture (delusions). The three syndrome model of schizophrenia are: Hallucinations, delusions, Behavioral disorganization, formal thought disorder and bizarre behavior. When schizophrenia is at a very active stage, one can notice that the patient is not in a position to distinguish between real and unreal life experiences. There is a noticeable presence of both positive and negative symptoms of the disorder. The positive symptoms include but are not limited to; hearing strange or voices that are not real at all, paranoid type of delusions and also a forms of perception, the beliefs of the person and their behaviours are seen to be either distorted or exaggerated. The negative signs include complete loss or seriously decreased ability of initiating plans, ability to speak and also ability to express one’s emotions or finding pleasure in life is very much affected.  

People with schizophrenia may sometimes talk about strange or unusual ideas, which can make it difficult to carry on a conversation. They may sit for hours without moving or talking. Sometimes people with schizophrenia seem perfectly fine until they talk about what they are really thinking.

THE CHALLENGES FACING PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Families and society are impacted by schizophrenia too. Many people with schizophrenia have difficulty holding a job or caring for themselves, so they may rely on others for help. Stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs about schizophrenia are common and sometimes interfere with people’s willingness to talk about and get treatment for the disorder. Schizophrenia is known to likely affect all of daily functions of its victims, this goes to an extent of affecting their social life or relationships.  In most cases, people who suffer from schizophrenia are affected together with their families, we find that people avoid marrying, making friends or even giving jobs to those who suffer from schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia are often stigmatized and avoided by others. Societal misinformation about schizophrenia undoubtedly plays a role in contributing to this. However, it is also reasonable to expect that some of the social deficits that characterize people with this disorder create difficulties for them and for the people with whom they interact. Over time, this may lead to increased negativity, social distance, and rejection by others.

People in the society have a pass mark that they tend to use to tell what is normal and what is abnormal, and even when one happens to be out of the scoop of what is considered normal, they are not willing to make life easy for them, instead the society excludes them and makes them feel isolated and this leads to stigma from the feeling of discrimination. Society often devalues these individuals for example people with schizophrenia, these severe mental health problems are twice as likely to be harassed in public as people without schizophrenia.

TREATMENT FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

Schizophrenia treatment involves medications and therapy to reduce the risk of future psychotic episodes and improve relationships. The type of therapy used is psychotherapy and social skills training which help people to improve their lives and also relationships. In patients with schizophrenia, it is seen that the severe psychotic signs reduce during a patient’s lifetime. Things like failure to take medicines, use of illicit drugs and alcohol are said to increase the signs of the disorder. People with the disorder who are strict in following medical requirements tend to improve over time. People with schizophrenia may cope with symptoms throughout their lives, but treatment helps many to recover and pursue their life goals. Researchers are developing more effective treatments and using new research tools to understand the causes of schizophrenia. In the years to come, this work may help prevent and better treat the illness.

Though there is no cure for the disorder, there are many studies that are being carried out that indicate that patients can have a safe and promising process of treatment. There are two main types of treatments of the disorder, drug treatment and psychological treatment. With drug treatment, there is a reduction in symptoms and future relapse. On the other hand, psychological treatment which includes use of cognitive behavioral therapies and also supportive psychotherapy are said to reduce the symptoms and increase the function of the individual.

There thus remains a considerable unmet patient need, and novel approaches for the treatment of schizophrenia must address key areas such as cognitive deficits, negative symptoms, and poor response to current antipsychotics. Our understanding of the underlying neurobiology of schizophrenia is improving considerably, driven by the impact of genetics and neuroimaging studies. Genetic studies have identified a growing list of rare, highly penetrant structural variants many of which implicate genes involved in the development of the central nervous system (CNS) and in maintaining synaptic integrity and function. Neuroimaging studies have provided the substrate for understanding abnormalities in neural circuitry and how these might underlie certain neuropsychological features of illness. These advances in our understanding of the disease biology offer hope that in the longer term, treatments may be devised which address the underlying neuropathological processes leading to the development and chronicity of illness, as well as addressing the heterogeneity of disease. Optimism is important and patients, family members and mental health professionals need to be mindful that many patients have a favorable course of illness that challenges can often be addressed, and that patients have many personal strengths that can be recognized and supported. Schizophrenia does not give one a sure license to madness as the society may tend to assume.

Early discovery of a person suffering from the condition, proper diagnosis, treatment and therapy can be of great help to make the patient live a fulfilling life as well as socializing properly with people around them. Strict taking of medication and avoiding alcohol and other illicit drugs can be supporting factors in managing the condition.

The society need to be educated on accepting people with schizophrenia so as not to discriminate against them, they should be included in the societal activities to enable them feel loved, cared for and also accepted. This will make them not to have the antisocial behaviours that are seen to be common to schizophrenic patients. Just like depression, schizophrenia can be managed with bot medical and therapeutic help.